Do It Yourself Move (DITY), Personally Procured Move (PPM), something only insane people do…it goes by many names these days, but I’m here to let you know that packing and moving your household goods is not that bad.

The first question I get when I tell people we move our own HHG is “why?”

Our decision started with a terrible move that brought only half of our house with the other half coming two weeks later. Things were broken, missing and the unloading crew was dragging our stuff off the truck and into the house.

My spouse and I said enough is enough and we took on the burden of moving ourselves.

It Feels So Good To Purge

Three months out begins the great purge. It feels SO good to get rid of things that you no longer use.

Purging is also a great way to make extra cash while ensuring the rental truck or container you have to pack won’t overflow.

Neighborhood yard sales followed by posting to local yard sale pages or the Facebook marketplace have proven the best place to sell things.

PPM pro-tip: if we haven’t used the item in a year, it’s gone.

Labeling Your Boxes With The Best Labels Ever

Now that you are down to the items you plan to move, you can start packing up the non-essential items. Things like seasonal décor, off-season clothing, off-season sports gear, outdoor toys that aren’t being used and anything else you and your family can live without.

We usually start by breaking down my spouse’s office that he HAS to have at each home. He doesn’t ever use it but it’s a great place to contain all his Army memorabilia so it’s not spewing into the rest of the house but I digress.

We break down the office and use this part of the house as our “ready area.” We pack up the non-essentials and tag them with the best labels EVER.

To buy these moving labels on Amazon, click here. This link is an Amazon affiliate link. If you purchase through this link, NextGen MilSpouse will earn a little cash to help keep us rocking and rolling. Learn more how this works on our Privacy Policy.

Your recycled moving boxes have other family’s names and info written on them so instead of getting a sharpie and going to town, pop this label on it and move on.

All boxes that are ready go into…you got it, the “ready area!”

PPM pro-tip: save one label from each roll because you will put it on the door of the corresponding room at your new home for unloading purposes.

3 Options For Getting Your Stuff From Point A To Point B

Now let’s talk about how to get your things from Point A to Point B. You have numerous options here and can choose the best fit for your family. We always do option C because that option works best for us.

PPM Option A, U-Pack or Pods Container: This shipping container gets dropped off at your home and they pick up and drive it to your new location.

Pros – you get your family and cars to your new home.

Cons – it’s not always a door-to-door move since it’s based on the availability of drivers and it’s more expensive than the other options.

PPM Option B, U-haul, Penske Truck, Enterprise (No Tow): You call and price out with the military discount and pick your winner!

Pros – cheaper than Option A and allows for a door-to-door move.

Cons – you have to drive the truck to your new home along with any other vehicles.

Let’s fast-forward to the month of your move. You are packing your home, have your truck or container booked, and now it’s time to think about loading day.

We have pets and kids and we don’t like for them to be there on loading day. The animals go to doggie daycare for the day and we utilize the on-base child development center (CDC) for our kids. If the CDC isn’t an option, you could consider hiring a sitter or asking a close friend to watch your children for the day.

Now it’s time to call in the favors of said close friends at the duty station and get help loading the moving truck. We aim for six to eight people for only two hours for two reasons.

It doesn’t sound that bad when you ask someone to help you for only 2 hours.

It only take two hours with eight people.

Your Personally Procured Move (PPM) Timeline: 7 Days Before You Leave

The week of load-out is an excellent time to confirm all reservations – doggie daycare, moving truck/container, a friendly reminder to friends helping move and so on.

Also, think about snacks and drinks for your friends helping. People don’t expect a full-on meal but we still need to feed ourselves, so I always make a lot and offer it to our friends. Things in the crockpot like pulled pork tacos or sandwiches with chips feed a ton and are crowd-pleasers. We provide water and beer because we love our friends.

The night before the load-out, move everything from the “ready area” into the garage if you have one. Once everything is in the garage, move all fragile items to the front. Most trucks have a “Grandma’s attic” for these breakable items and they need to be loaded first. They will be easy to spot with those fragile stickers you put on!

The next morning you will pick up and weigh the truck empty, then back it up to the garage, throw open the doors, and begin the game of Tetris to make it all fit.

After some colorful language and rearranging numerous times and everyone’s suggestions, the truck will be loaded.

Don’t forget to put a decent lock on your truck when you are finished loading because people could potentially try to get into your truck as you PCS to your new duty station.

Lastly, keep all receipts along the way and consider hiring movers at your new duty station to help you unload the bulky items. This is a great option since you probably don’t know too many people at your new location.

Jenah Wieczorek, PCSgrades Director of Community Outreach, is an Army spouse and mom to two wonderful boys. She is a two-time recipient of the First Cavalry Division Commander’s Award for Volunteer Excellence, the Department of the Army Award for Patriotic Civilian Service, and is a member of the U.S. Cavalry and Armor Association’s Order of St. Joan D’Arc. Jenah enjoys coffee from 9-5, wine from 5-9, leggings as pants, reading and spending time with her family. She currently resides in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and is PCSing to Fort Stewart, Georgia this summer.

But I love, love, LOVE, the adventure of getting from Point A to Point B. The 3 times that my husband and I have moved we’ve made PCSing into a vacation. And not just any vacation, a pretty epic one.

See, we are those people that love a good road trip. It hasn’t happened yet but I want to do the full cross-country move where you stop at all of the “world’s largest” things on the side of the road. The Army hasn’t given us that route yet but we have made each of our moves epic adventures.

We have driven up the California coast. We made it to the Mighty 5 in Utah. And we found Walter White’s house from “Breaking Bad” in Albuquerque.

How do we turned our PCS road trips into epic family vacations? With these 7 simple steps.

How To Take Your PCS Road Trip And Turn It Into An Epic Family Vacation

Check ALL possible routes. When my husband and I did our first PCS from Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state we knew we had to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway.

Was there really another route? Well, fast-forward 4 years and we were going from Washington back to Arizona and we didn’t want to drive the same way. At first we thought that we could do Yosemite National Park and a few others in central California, but then my co-worker suggested Utah. A quick look at Google Maps made us rethink our whole trip. And we did it!

I’m so glad that my co-worker pushed me in that direction because it was the most incredible trip.

While it may seem like there is only one way from Point A to B, there isn’t. Pull out your map or zoom out on Google Maps and see if there is another way that may have something new to see.

Look at a calendar. We have been fairly lucky that we have never had to rush to get to a military installation. Now this does mean that our household goods get put into storage, which is sometimes not ideal.

Work backward from the day that your spouse needs to report to his or her new duty station, look at the route you want to take, and figure out how long it will take to do everything you want to do.

For example, when we drove up the California coast we added a full day in Sonoma for wine tasting. We also knew that we weren’t going to drive 8 hours every day so divide drive time by what you think you’ll actually do. Sure you can drive straight through, but what are you missing? Once you have a general sense of how much time you have from when the movers show up and when you need to be at your new duty station you can start planning.

Also, remember that you may stumble upon something cool that you didn’t know about. When we were driving into Utah we saw a sign for the Golden Spike National Historic Site, the place where the continental railroad met in the 1800s. Being huge history buffs, we took a detour. We knew that we could add an hour or so to our trip because we hadn’t planned an ambitious driving day. It was a fun stop for us and added a great story to our trip.

Make a plan. I love spreadsheets so I map out our schedule from the day we’re leaving to when we arrive. I have columns for date, starting and ending point, travel accommodations and stops we want to make. I’m a visual person so this works really well for me, and has everything in one place for when we’re on the drive and I need to look something up. It also helped me budget our trips, so I knew how much we were spending on lodging versus when we were staying with family or friends (if we could) on the way.

When we were moving from Arizona to Texas I didn’t do a great job looking at the calendar and realized we missed a day. So double and triple check that you didn’t miss any time. Fortunately for us we were able to add a day in Santa Fe which gave us more time to explore and relax.

Save money. Since my husband and I add days to our PCS travels we do have to pay for some of it out-of-pocket but we pull from our vacation savings fund to do just that.

Think of PCS road trip as your summer vacation. Sure you’ll get paid back for mileage and the number of days the military allows for a move from your old location to the new location, but sometimes you may want to splurge on a nice hotel or restaurant. And that’s OK, but factor that in while you’re making your plan so that you don’t come out on the other side with sticker shock.

Make those reservations. You have a plan and you know your budget, so book away!

My husband and I did a mix of hotels and camping for our Utah adventure, but we knew we had to book all of those ahead of time. We were traveling in peak summer vacation season. This meant that at times we stayed a bit further away from places that we would have liked, but we made changes to our plan as need be.

If you plan on camping, check with the park if they allow reservations or if it’s first-come, first-served. If you’re like me and like to have a plan this will help you know if you need to get somewhere early or go nearby so that you know you have a place to sleep.

Pack accordingly. Days before the movers showed up at our house in Washington we got in a car accident. Everyone was fine, except for our SUV.

It was totaled.

It was the car that we had planned on driving (we were going to ship our sedan) and it holds so much stuff that I wasn’t worried about our do-not-pack area.

As soon as we knew that we were going to be driving our sedan I got super stressed. My husband and I kicked it into gear and did a pre-pack of the car of everything we wanted to take with us – luggage (not filled), important files, a few things to survive on when we got to our new home, and camping gear. Once we knew how much stuff fit in the car we could pack and add some camping gear to the pile for the movers.

Also, check the weather of places you’ll be going. Do you need jackets? Bathing suits? Spend some time before the movers arrive to sort your clothes, kitchen gear, etc. and see what fits in your car. Then you won’t be as stressed when the movers dump everything into boxes.

Have fun! Knowing that I have a fun adventure in the middle of the craziness that is a PCS really helps me cope with uprooting our lives.

The road trip helps us relax, recharge and see new parts of this amazing country that we all call home. So take pictures, unplug as much as you can, and live in the moment. The military may not send you on that route again, so make the most of it!

Do you turn your PCS road trips into epic family adventures? How do you do it? Share your PCS family vacation stories and pictures in the comments section.

For the first time since the summer of 2012, my family and I are not moving. Count it, that’s 5 consecutive years, where we moved every single summer.

My husband and I joke that our family celebrates the Fourth of July by unpacking a mountain of boxes and eating take-out on paper plates instead of the traditional American barbecue, because like clockwork, we always seem to PCS in early July.

Looking back at so many of our moves, I can even find humor in the situation. I always have to remind myself that whenever I’m in the throes of a PCS and nothing is going according to plan, I’ll someday look back and laugh at the situation.

With so many PCS stories to choose from, it’s hard to pick a “favorite.”

Maybe it was sleeping on an air mattress and eating dinner on a cardboard box for 2 months because our household goods that we planned ahead and shipped early, got stuck in customs for 2 months.

There was always that time I filled my car’s gas tank the day I was supposed to ship it with an empty tank. I had to convince a Korean mechanic to drain it in time.

Alternatively, there was that time I was 7 months pregnant in the heat of a Fort Hood summer, pleading with the movers to stop bringing another family’s household goods into my new home.

Most recently, it was the time when my husband deployed to Afghanistan and my toddler, 2 dogs and I drove across 2 time zones on our own to get to our new home. It’s “funny” how my husband, often seems to not be around for the PCS, very convenient, but I guess deployment is a valid excuse.

However, this summer there will be no PCS and my family and I will be staying put in our own home.

There will be no moving boxes, no change of address cards and no stress of packing up our entire lives into a million boxes and moving it to a new duty station.

It’s a strange phenomenon that I’m not accustomed too, and get this, my husband won’t even be deployed or TDY. It’s almost as if I’m getting a taste of civilian life again, almost. There are so many helpful lists of things to do in preparation for a PCS, but below is my list of 10 things I’m not going to do this summer!

10 Things This Military Spouse Is NOT Going To Do This Summer

1. I’m not going to say so long (a seasoned milspouse knows never to say goodbye) to all the awesome new friends and neighbors I’ve met over the last year. Instead, I’m going to enjoy all the time I have left with my friends and make some new ones too!

2. I’m not going to take down every single picture I just hung up in my home. In fact, I have new decorations to add…especially the ones in my home office that have been sitting propped against the wall for the last 11 months.

3. I’m not going to frantically contact all the daycare centers in a 30-mile radius, looking for child care for my son. I’m not even going to make any daily calls to the CDC to inquire about my son’s waitlist status. I’m going to enjoy the continuity of sending him to school every day with the same teachers he’s had for a year.

4. I’m not going to search for a new dentist, pediatrician, eye doctor, babysitter, hair stylist, dry cleaner, vet or kennel for my dogs, or internet/trash/utilities provider…you get it, the list goes on.

5. I’m not going to give/throw away all our liquor, candles, cleaning supplies, propane tanks and food. Instead, I might take said liquor, make myself a drink, light the candles I didn’t have to throw away and enjoy a relaxing bath.

6. I’m not going to gain 10 pounds from spending all my time sitting in a car, road tripping across the country as I frantically try to beat the movers to our next location. Likewise, I won’t be stuck in a cramped extended-stay hotel, eating out for all my meals.

7. I’m not going to cry over the gouges the movers put in the hope chest my grandmother left to me or pick up broke pieces of our wedding china. I’ll save those worries for the next PCS.

8. I’m not going to spend hours researching and analyzing the perfect new home to rent or buy. I won’t worry about finding a magical unicorn house that combines the perfect price, school system, bedroom count, commute to work, and proximity to Target, all in one location.

9. I’m not going to watch the weather like it’s my new full time job as I worry about whether or not it’s going to rain cats and dogs on moving day. We may live in the high desert of Colorado, but I guarantee you it always rains on our moving day.

10. I’m not going to roll my eyes when the moving contractor tells me that, “we can definitely pack you out and move you in under 2 days.”

Maybe it sounds a little bit like I’m bragging, but I promise you I’m not. I know that a summer without a PCS is a special treat and I appreciate that.

If you are dealing with a PCS this summer, I will be thinking about you and sending you positive PCS vibes. Whether it’s your first PCS or your 10th, they’re still a pain and no matter how much you plan and organize, something always still goes wrong. As military spouses, we learn to roll with the punches. It’s just what we do and we always make it work.

For now, I’m going to enjoy my PCS-less summer because I know that Summer 2018 and the PCS that comes with it, will be here soon enough.

Christine Maxwell is an Army wife and toddler mom. She works as a Budget Manager in Higher Education and also manages HerMoneyMoves, a blog about personal finances, career and military family life geared toward military spouses and their families.

It’s the decision to opt for a Personally Procured Move (PPM), more commonly known as a DITY (Do-It-Yourself) Move.

Military families, who brave the paperwork of a PPM, are the ones that flatten, store and reuse their moving boxes after each PCS. They are the dedicated ones who pack a few boxes each night in the weeks leading up to their relocation date. They are the calm ones who don’t fret over when the moving truck will arrive at their new home. They aren’t concerned because they are the ones driving it.

DITY moving military couples are the ones who shake their heads and knowingly smile at each other when their neighbors complain about the insane packing decisions of their professional packers.

Want to complain about your trash that was packed and shipped to Kentucky? Look for someone who didn’t DITY.

The advantages of a DITY move are as numerous as the reasons to opt for professional movers.

Seek permission. Are you considering doing a DITY move this PCS season? Here are 6 essential steps to ensure that you keep your sanity during your DITY move.You can’t beg for forgiveness when it comes to a PPM. Once you decide that you want to do a DITY move, your service member needs to complete the proper paperwork at his or her Travel Management Office (TMO).

Your service member will be given a complete list of reimbursement costs along with the list of items that you will not be reimbursed for. For example, the cost of packing materials is included under a PPM. But if you buy a tow dolly, that item is not.

Information is power, so make sure you fully understand the specifics of a DITY move. You also need an accurate weight estimate of your household goods. Your TMO office has information on how to calculate your property weight.

Take your PCS binder to the next level. When you move, you need to have a PCS binder as your safe place for documents, receipts, military orders and forms to carry with you during travel. You don’t want to be hunting for a U-Haul receipt at the bottom of your purse when your service member needs it. Trust me.

Here is a list of necessary documents to keep in your PCS binder:

DD 1351-2: Travel Voucher

DD 2278: Application for DITY Move & Counseling Checklist

Copy of PCS Travel Orders

Certified Weigh Tickets, one for Gross (full) weight and one for Tare (empty) weight. TMO recommends that you tape each ticket to a piece of paper.

Copy of Paid Rental Agreement

Copy of vehicle registration when utilizing POV and/or boat/trailer

Common Operating Personal Expenses (OPE)

Being organized and detailed are essential skills for successful DITY moving military spouses. By having your documents readily accessible, you won’t feel stressed when it’s time to get reimbursed for your moving expenses.

Reduce your costs as much as possible. With a PPM, the government pays you 95 percent of the total cost it would be for them to hire a moving company to take your household goods from point A to point B.

Smart DITY packers are the ones who post on Facebook in the month before their move “hey anyone have any boxes or packing paper that they don’t need any more?” If you live in a military community, I guarantee that as you are packing up, some other military family is unpacking their household goods. Save yourself a lot of time spent running around looking for free boxes from retail stores, by reusing another military family’s old boxes.

When reserving your moving truck, don’t forget to ask for a military discount. Many national moving companies offer discounts for active duty and National Guard members.

Aim to pack smarter, not harder. Look for anything that is box-like in your house and use it as a moving box.

Food storage containers? Fill them with small and loose items. If you have the original boxes for anything you purchased, put the items back in to those boxes. For example, pack the television in its original box and the computer monitor in its box.

Don’t pack towels and blankets in boxes. Use them to wrap your furniture and breakable items. Again, it goes back to packing smarter, not harder. Think creatively when you pack up your items.

Insure your move. The government is not liable for any loss or damages that occur during a personally procured move. Since you are the one packing your household items, you are the one responsible if your sofa cushion is ripped or the corner of your desk is cracked. Makes sense, right?

Now let’s talk worst-case scenario.

What if there’s a heavy thunderstorm while you are driving to your new duty station and while unpacking you discover that your moving truck roof had a leak and now your dining room table has water damage? Are those damages covered under your renter insurance?

What if you are in a traffic accident while driving your moving truck? Is that covered under your auto insurance?

You don’t want to face these worse-case scenarios without adequate insurance coverage. It is your responsibility to purchase the proper insurance to cover your rental equipment, including the moving truck, and your household goods.

Insurance doesn’t have to be a difficult or costly process either. For less than $15 a month you can protect your property while you are renting and during a PCS move. Renter insurance from Armed Forces Insurance will cover your belongings from theft, fire, vehicle accidents, mysterious disappearances, etc. during a move.

Find friends who are willing to do the heavy lifting. Moving day will go smoother and faster if you can find 4 friends to help you. I recently helped my sister move into her new house and it was amazing how quickly you can load and unload a moving truck when you have 6 people.

While a PPM is technically a Do-It-Yourself move, you don’t want to do it alone. Ask your church group, workout buddies, neighbors and even a few high school football team members to help you with the heavy lifting.

Don’t forget to thank them with pizza and water. Free food is always the best payment when it comes to packing on moving day.

Moving yourself is a great option if you have the time, patience and motivation. As I said in the beginning, military couples who are dedicated to DITY moves often preach about the benefits of this PCS option.

Are you a dedicated DITY mover? What tips do you have for military couples who want to opt for a PPM? Share them in the comments section.

Let’s be real: we do not have any choice in where we live. The military picks a place and we go.

Sometimes you luck out. You move to a place with lots of sunshine, warm temperatures, amazing friends and maybe even some beautiful beaches.

Other times you get stuck in a less than desirable location. Suddenly you’re in the middle of nowhere, with just the buffalo for company.

My ideal duty station might be totally different from yours. But we all have them: places that we never want to live. Ever.

This can make it seem like we HAVE to enjoy where we live or we’re not being good military spouses. That if we dislike something, anything, about the current duty station that we are simply terrible people.

So not the case. At all.

Repeat After Me: You’re Not Going to Love Every Duty Station and That’s OK

There are so many reasons to dislike or outright hate the place you are currently living. It could be anything, from the job prospects to the climate, from the people around you to your spouse’s schedule.

These little, and not so little, things can really add up and influence your opinion of a military base.

For me, I need to be near water. Not necessarily the ocean, although that is preferred. Being landlocked would drive me absolutely nuts! Luckily, those choices are limited for my family right now.

I don’t think that I would do well in, say, Fort Sill, Okla. I would have a hard time blooming there.

In fact, I might go dormant.

Now, San Diego…If we got sent there again, I would be over the moon! I’d be blooming all over SoCal.

You don’t need to justify your feelings.

Instead of trying to “just” explain away why you don’t quite feel at home in your new hometown, own it. It might “just” not be the kind of place that you enjoy. Or the humidity might destroy your curls. You might be a country girl stuck in the city, or vice versa. The school options might be limited or the house you got saddled with is a dump.

There are as many reasons to dislike somewhere as there are stars in the sky. And you do not need to explain it to anyone else. Even if your friend LOVES that place. Even if you thought that you would love it too.

The only opinion that matters is your own. And maybe your spouse. And the kids. But that’s it!

It’s OK to countdown to moving day.

I’ll admit it, I’m kind of doing this right now. Not because I hate where I live, but because I would rather live somewhere else. I miss the last 2 places we got stationed with a deep ache.

In the middle of disliking your base, seek out something that makes you smile. It could be that the barista at the local cafe makes your soy macchiato just right. At least you’ll be caffeinated while you complain!

It’s OK to not love where you are stationed.

Seriously. It’s fine.

You’re playing the odds and rolling the dice every time orders are pending. Sometimes you win. And other times you get the short stick.

If you land somewhere that was last on your list, it’s perfectly OK to dislike where you live. It’s even OK to outright hate it.

In 3 years, maybe less, you get to play the PCS game again. You’ll have the chance to move somewhere much, much better.

Do you dislike the place where you are stationed? How do you make the best of it? Tell us in the comments!

We have journeyed in and out, across the breadth and length of the state of New Mexico as the Trail of Tears (also known as Highway 60/84) has taken us north and south. We have explored the Sacramento Mountains, the artistic communities of the north, and the desert of the west. We have spent time along the eastern corridor traversing the Texas border for Palo Dura Canyon, Lubbock, Amarillo and Odessa. I have traverse the I-40 to Albuquerque to join in meetings and attend work conferences more often than has felt enjoyable.

We have marveled at the way the high plains sit above and the way it feels like a desert with its almost irrational heat and blistering cold. It is a forbidding place. Its people curl inward with deep roots.

It is hard to be an interloper; hard to feel like no matter how much you contribute to the community or give of yourself; you will always be new.

Hard, when even those who have been here for 20 years still feel as though they are looked upon as an outsider.

But to be an outsider is part of what it means to be a military family in the United States.

This is why military families often stick together socially; because this means you know longer have to answer how long you will be here or how you ended up here. To be together means leaving the outsider label to the side. As service in the military is now only something 1% of the U.S. population has any experience of, this sense of difference and isolation will likely only increase.

“Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”

– S.E. Hinton, “The Outsiders”

On the other hand, I often find the exceptionalism with which the military family community describes themselves to be jarring. Maybe, it is a hangover from the cultural shock of the American focus on the individual experience. The notion of the “specialness” of one life experience over another often has the effect of diluting the challenges that can draw people together and create the kind of community that I believe we all yearn for, and which enables the agency of the most vulnerable.

Please hear what I am saying, I am saying that certain policies do have a disproportionately negative impact on military families, and increasingly the research backs up the incredible economic and social impact – particularly of unemployment and underemployment of military families.

So there’s the central question: how do we ensure that military families are not punished for what is truly a life of service (not just for the member but for the whole family) while not further alienating ourselves from the communities we find ourselves, whether it is for 1 year or 20?

“We’re all we’ve got left. We ought to be able to stick together against everything. If we don’t have each other, we don’t have anything.”

– S.E. Hinton, “The Outsiders”

How do we tell our story, without resorting to unnecessary sentimentalism or exceptionalism?

The answer lies within the question: we tell our story.

We can tell it by the numbers or by sharing some of the everyday.

This is part of the everyday. Part of the story of our experience in eastern New Mexico (where we would not have lived these past 3 years if not for my husband’s service in the U.S. military).

New Mexico has a curiously clarifying effect. I have said that it is easy to see the forest (the big picture) when there are no trees. The sky often glimmers with pink, orange and greyish blues at sunset. The changeable winds bring the smell of cow manure to slam up against the post rain smell of new growth. Did I mention the smell?

Clovis has brought us a beginning. It will always be the first place we made our home as newlyweds, where we waited for news of my immigration status, where we spent many nights with neighbors who became more than friends, and where we struggled through the challenges of my husband’s schedule and work demands and discovered the need for better blackout curtains.

Clovis will always be where I learned that my grandfather had died; where I met my niece Emily (via FaceTime) as an hours old infant in my sister’s arms; where our older nieces E & C helped me plant flowers.

Clovis is where I have written grant applications, celebrated the victories of leading a community-based nonprofit, and cried about its challenges.

Clovis is where I have held friends’ babies, danced with toddlers (and helped with potty training), celebrated weddings with friends, and where we have cried with friends as they have dealt with devastating loss.

This is where there has been wine and cocktails, and where we have shared Sunday family dinners and weeknight meals. This home is where we have spent many nights apart as we both worked in our own ways to make the world a better and safer place.

“nothing can wear you out like caring about people”

– S.E. Hinton, “That Was Then, This Is Now”

We will be moving (the military calls it a PCS – Permanent Change of Station) in late July or early August.

Right now, we are in a state of overwhelm – we are trying to finish out our time here and our jobs here, well; trying to stay healthy and hold out until we can take a little time to explore New Mexico in early July; trying to sell one house, and working on buying another.

There is a great deal of adulting going on, and quite a bit of crazy making. You know, just the usual military family stuff.

“Writer’s were supposed to be a little crazy”

– S.E. Hinton

How are you telling your story as a military spouse? What is your story and what does your story say about you?

Anna Blanch Rabe is an Australian-born writer and advocate, who is also married to an Air Force officer. She has written for MSJDN Blog, Transpositions, and Englewood Review of Books. She works as the CEO of Anna Blanch Rabe & Associates LLC, serving nonprofits, social enterprises, and attorneys with strategic, digital, and narrative initiatives. You can read more of her writing on her blog.

School’s ending soon and summer is following behind, which means most Americans are in the process of planning vacations and spending time off with family.

For the military community, summer is also a time that orders come down and planning for a move is on the agenda. It undoubtedly becomes the busiest time of the year for military families.

Are you gearing up to move this summer?

Even if you’re not moving, be sure to pocket as many resources you can to help you plan for a smooth move. There are actual studies proving that moving is one of life’s most stressful events. And military families move nearly 3 times more often than civilian families. Yikes! So, make sure you’re as planned as you ever will be!

Aside from all the tips and tricks for a smooth move, there is also a great tactic to ensure that all your appropriate and critical documents are in one place. Creating a PCS binder would be extremely helpful to keep everything you need at your fingertips.

Wondering what should be inside your PCS binder?

For any move, you want to keep ALL vital paperwork on you at all times, especially those that verify your identity. NEVER pack them someplace you can’t easily access. Also, if you PCS OCONUS, you might actually need them for travel.

Because most documents can’t be modified or damaged, I like to keep pocketed tabs to place important paperwork that way you don’t need to punch holes to put them in your binder. For example, have one pocketed tab for birth certificates and another for social security cards and so on. Instead of pocketed tabs, you can use normal dividers and sheet protectors. Do whatever floats your boat!

It’s also important to include your home inventory in your binder. Jot down a list of all your valuable appliances, furniture and anything else you spent a pretty penny on that the movers are taking away. Your list of belongings should be something you work from as you add or take away home goods to help you with any future moves too.

I love budgeting. Saving money is fun for me and anyway to do it is great! In this case, budgeting is actually beneficial to get your move off on the right foot. Each service member is entitled to a certain amount of money for their move depending on all the factors that play into your move. Take the time to write everything out and allocate your money appropriately. Having it in your PCS binder is a great reminder to keep things on track.

To help prep for pack-up at your losing installation, I create a unique checklist of things that I need to do to help with the process. A special checklist for myself and for my husband.

If you have kiddos, put together a special list for them, so they can be included (and let’s be honest, we can use all the help we can get too!).

Next, create a whole section for items that are needed for the actual move. I like to have a personal copy of my husband’s paper orders, just in case it’s needed in any of the planning process.

I have a special tab that also details all our entitlements and cost breakdown of all our expenses and the budget to keep me on track. When we DITY moved, I used this section to keep all the moving receipts and weight tickets, so during in-processing, my husband had everything he needed to turn in.

Finding a home at a new location gets a whole section in my PCS binder. I like to have comparison charts set-up to identify surrounding neighborhoods and then, the cost of living would be in each area. Starting with finding a neighborhood is helpful to pinpoint an ideal house. There are lots of different resources out there to help find a perfect home like AHRN.com, Zillow.com and even Facebook!

Need some more inspiration or guidance for your PCS binder?

A lot of great military-related organizations have templates you can use to help you get started. For example, AHRN.com released their 2015 PCS Toolkit recently. I’ve also used Military.com’s PCS checklist and Military OneSource’s moving section. NextGen MilSpouse also pulled some additional resources you should bookmark for your move.

What documents or checklist do you put in your PCS binder? I would love to know.

It’s practically common knowledge that a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) is time consuming and not to mention involved…very involved. That’s why our spouses warn us early on in our relationships that constant moving is a part of the military lifestyle.

In an effort to ease the time-consuming nature of PCSing, there is a wealth of information on the web to help us with every aspect of a military move. NextGen MilSpouse put together a great tip sheet that rounds up useful websites, worksheets and other applicable resources. Did you just get orders? Check it out here.

Yet, there are certain things that your military family really, really (and I mean REALLY) shouldn’t skip.

Be sure to carve out time to do these 5 things for your next PCS:

Conduct a Home Inventory

You’ve probably heard horror stories of families missing out on damage claims, lost certain items or even become victim of an unexpected disaster while moving. In a lot of cases, those families lose out in the actual cost of their goods because of the lack of documentation. There was a recent story of an Air Force family losing a safe with a whole lotta valuables during a PCS. Because they didn’t document the safe, there is no solid proof that it was actually moved. Talk about a huge bummer!

Seriously, be detailed when recording video and taking pictures of major appliances and electronics in working condition. In addition, include the serial numbers or critical components in your shots to back up any claim you might have to file if the item is damaged or doesn’t turn up at your next duty station. This is the best way to protect your household goods.

Stick to Your PCS Budget

Budgeting for a PCS always lands on the radar, but sometimes it’s more like a generalization than an actual breakdown of figures and entitlements. Or, if you’re like me, you start doing all the leg work like writing down your budget and calculating, but lose out on the process during the actual move.

Making sure you have your entitlements correct saves you from out-of-pocket expenses and surprise charges.

For example, my husband and I signed our lease mid-afternoon, but still had to move in all our stuff from the rental truck. We were too exhausted to lift a finger by that point, so we decided to stay at a hotel that night to recharge our batteries. Since we technically already had a residence, we were not reimbursed for that lodging expense. That’s why creating some buffer room in your PCS budget is important. You really never know how things will turn out!

Create a Pet Resume

While searching for a new home, we take every family member into consideration…even the furry ones. Sometimes, it gets discouraging because a lot of rentals might not allow pets or maybe only accept small-sized pets. Despite the size of your beloved pets, military families should put together a pet resume for potential landlords or property managers. Not only does it show responsibility, it can give landlords or property managers that won’t consider pets a chance to get to know your additional family member. In your pet resume, put together a detailed rundown of references, recent vaccinations and any other relevant information.

Make an Appoinment with Base Legal for a Power of Attorney

For my husband, it was the scariest thing he’s ever done…give legal reins to another person, but I wouldn’t have been able to plan our PCS with it. The beauty of a Power of Attorney (POA) is that you can make it limited to only certain things. I encourage you and your spouse to meet with legal services to discuss what type you need for your upcoming PCS.

My husband was overseas during a majority (in reality all) of the planning process of our most recent PCS. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of scheduling or planning. Even if your husband is local, consider obtaining one as a “just in case.” Seriously, you never know what will happen.

Purge Before Packing

Even if you think you’ll have enough room at your next home, take the time to evaluate what your family has accumulated. Purging can save you from hoarding goods that you really don’t need. It’s also a good way to add to your PCS budget with a garage sale or donate unwanted goods to a local charity. Really, this purge will help you feel good and start fresh.

What critical things do you never skip when planning your PCS? I would love to hear your list. Tell us in the comments.

I have always dreamed that my life would be a fairytale. I just didn’t know that fairytale would be “Goldilocks and The Three Bears”…except with houses instead of bears and porridge.

After moving 5 times in 3 years, technically only 4 moves as we stayed with family for 2 weeks, and looking back on all the different houses we rented – what an adventure!

These adventures in house fitting wouldn’t have been possible without the Marine Corps sending us on Recruiting Duty in Illinois. But now that the stress of RD has begun to fade and I am finally in my “just right” home, I can look back at all of our houses with a sense of humor and how we Milfams find ways to make it work.

My dad dubbed this the antique house.

Too Small

Our first station was in the suburbs of Chicago. You would think plenty of suitable housing would be available, but of course, not where we were sent. The only house available to rent that would accept pets was one of the original houses in the community…newly “renovated.” Even though the inside had been updated, there are some things about a 100 year old house that you can’t change. Apparently people were short back in the day and the ceilings remained rather low. My wall-unit office furniture had 1 inch of clearance in the room. Our bedroom was so small that our dresser stayed in the hallway. The door to the second bedroom looked like something you would have seen in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. It was “custom cut” to fit the slanted ceilings, and if you forgot to duck when entering… ouch!

Too Narrow

Have you had a house that’s quirky?

On our next move we again we had slim options for housing that would accept our fur-children. We ended up in an older, former farm house. The kitchen – HUGE! The rest of the house… it was just another puzzle to make our furniture fit. The house was long and very narrow. You could stand at the back door and look straight down through to the front door. Our dresser actually fit in the bedroom, but it blocked the door to the bathroom. Our nightstands only fit next to our bed if they were turned sideways and we couldn’t open the drawers. The turn in the stairs was so sharp and the stairway so narrow that some of the baby’s furniture had to stay downstairs because it just would not fit. There was just no way it was going anywhere other than 10 feet from the entry way.

Too Big…In The Wrong Places

Fast forward through our 2 week stay with family in Georgia and we end up back in North Carolina. Once again the pets limited us. While this house wasn’t an antique or so narrow, it was still quirky. The living room was huge, which sounds nice but with the layout there was just unused empty space. The master bedroom was so spacious that I felt like I had to buy extra furniture. So what’s the deal you ask? The bathrooms where indeed the smallest I had ever seen. Most importantly, the kitchen was smaller than what you may find in an apartment. Everyone has their priorities when it comes to a house, mine happen to be the bathrooms and kitchen.

Just Right

Just right, finally!

So on the hunt we went…again. It was really just pure luck. We found a house for sale the first day it went on the market and it was just perfect. The bedrooms are good sized, the bathroom is a dream come true, the kitchen…holy cabinet space Batman! The yard is huge for the kiddo and dogs to share. The furniture actually fits nicely in the room that it was intended to go in. It’s just right for us.

But that’s part of the fun in moving around and having the opportunity to experience life in different places. That’s also what makes Milfams unique – we make any house that we live in a home. And while we may use the dining room as a bedroom or a closet as an office, housing is always an adventure that we can look back on and laugh, and will continue to provide us with stories for years to come.

Do you have a crazy housing adventure – re-purposing a room or getting creative to make your furniture work? Share it here with us!